


XF Friday Nights 9: Two-Faced

by ML_is_me



Series: XF Friday Nights [9]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-12
Updated: 2017-05-12
Packaged: 2018-10-28 19:17:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10837695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ML_is_me/pseuds/ML_is_me
Summary: What just happened? And who was responsible?Another entry in the XFFN series, exploring secondary characters.





	XF Friday Nights 9: Two-Faced

**Author's Note:**

> This is the ninth story in an exploration of the  
> early seasons. They are somewhat loosely tied together but can be  
> read as standalones. All can be found at:  
> http://ml-griffonnage.dreamwidth.org and, at least up to number 8,  
> at Gossamer. Eventually all will be here, too.

XF Friday Nights 09: Two-Faced

x-x-x

Washington, DC

The phone rang as he stepped out of his inner office. He put his  
finger to his lips.

"Senator Matheson's office...no, he's not here right now,  
may I take a message?" His senior assistant, Carol, made a note.  
"Yes, I'll make sure he gets the message as soon as he comes in."

As soon as Carol disconnected the call, the Senator nodded. "Thank  
you, Carol. I'll take the message." 

Carol handed it to him. The Senator read it and folded it in two,  
placing it in his pocket. "I'll see you in about an hour."

Other than a few hardy tourists there were not many people on the  
Mall. Most were walking briskly to get out of the sharp wind.

"Senator," the man he was looking for approached as if meeting him  
unexpectedly. "You got my message."

They shook hands. "I only have a few minutes," the Senator said.  
"This is a risk, meeting like this."

"I knew you'd want to know about this. There's been another  
incident at the Cape."

x-x-x

Houston, Texas

"What do you think happened?" Michelle Generoo asked her fiance  
at dinner a few nights after the aborted launch.

"What they said, right?" He replied. "Mechanical failure. I'm just  
glad it wasn't my flight."

"But what if it was?" Her worst nightmare was a repeat of the  
Challenger disaster on her watch, especially if David was piloting. 

"You know what? You worry too much." David saluted her with his  
tonic water. Even though the next launch wasn't for a few weeks, he  
was a stickler. "Here's to the next successful shuttle flight."

She smiled and sipped her wine and said no more that night.  
Privately she couldn't leave it alone, but who could she talk to?  
Colonel Belt would decide if there would be any further  
investigation, and he was so protective of the program he wouldn't do  
anything that would draw negative attention.

But would he go so far as to allow a catastrophic failure? Or was  
she worrying needlessly, as David said? Was her personal  
relationship interfering with her professional responsibilities?

The countdown clock haunted her dreams. She made a few discreet  
inquiries, hampered by the fact that if the Colonel found out, that  
would be the end of her career.

Two days before David's launch, a large envelope arrived at her  
personal address. It contained several photographs of the X-rayed APU  
valve. She'd seen it before, but this one emphasized a particular  
detail. As she examined it, a thrill of fear ran through her. What  
did this mean? There was no return address on the envelope. She  
reached inside and found a small piece of paper with a phone number  
with a Washington, DC area code.

The phone was picked up on the first ring. "Ms. Generoo, I've been  
expecting your call."

"Who are you? Did you send these photos?"

"Where they came from doesn't matter. Secrecy is of the utmost  
importance. I have a name for you at the FBI: someone who is used to  
investigating such matters. His name is Fox Mulder. You need to  
contact him before the next launch. The space program - and,  
possibly your fiance's life - might depend upon you."

"But -"

Click. Dial tone. She tried redialing, but the phone rang and rang  
and rang. When she tried again an hour later, the number had been  
disconnected.

x-x-x

Washington, DC

The observer on the Mall watched as Michelle Generoo passed the two  
agents, paused, and then turned around to speak to them. They  
remained in conversation for several minutes; the envelope exchanged  
hands.

Bait taken.

x-x-x

Houston, TX

Michelle was not surprised to see the agents observing above the  
control room. Word had already circulated that two FBI agents had met  
with Colonel Belt, and speculation as to why was running wild.

The Colonel was his usual closed-off self. She couldn't tell  
anything about his meeting with the agents from his expression. 

Fortunately the launch went off without a hitch. She looked up and  
saw Agent Mulder giving an enthusiastic thumbs-up. He looked like a  
kid visiting Disney World for the first time. 

Colonel Belt magnanimously gestured for the agents to come down to  
the control room floor. He introduced them to Michelle, which was  
slightly awkward for her, though neither Mulder nor Scully let on  
that they'd met in DC the day before. 

Agent Mulder was an odd mixture of boyish enthusiasm and serious  
investigator, and he seemed to have no concept of personal space.  
Michelle wondered how his partner stood him. Agent Scully was  
professional and reserved, pretty much the opposite of her partner.

Agent Mulder also had a bad case of hero-worship. Agent Scully  
appeared to be immune to Colonel Belt, but Mulder practically  
genuflected. Michelle wondered if Agent Scully had an opposing view  
from Mulder's whether she would be shouted down. That's how it  
worked most of the time if you were the only female in the room. She  
should know.

She wondered what it was like to be a female FBI agent. Probably the  
same as it was to be a female working at NASA. Had to work twice as  
hard to be considered half as good; same old, same old. Still, she'd  
love to have a chance to pick Agent Scully's brain. Did she have  
ambitions beyond being an agent? There was no chance to talk to her;  
the Colonel hustled them out as quickly as he could.

It wasn't until after the agents had left for their hotel that the  
problems started.

x-x-x

Something was seriously wrong with Colonel Belt. She found him  
collapsed in his office, talking nonsense. "I couldn't stop them.  
Nobody could stop them. They don't want us to go, they don't want  
us to go!" His face contorted and for a moment it looked like  
the...thing she'd seen through her windshield the night before.  
She blurted it out without thinking.

What on earth was Agent Mulder doing? His partner yelled at him to  
get out of the way as Mulder tried some kind of mumbo-jumbo to get  
information out of the Colonel. Michelle stood by, paralyzed, torn by  
her fear for David and his crew, hoping against hope that something  
could still be done to save them.

Once the Colonel was on his way to the hospital, they sprinted back  
to Control. The information Mulder somehow pulled out of him  
worked. 

After the dust settled, she had a little time to think about it. Was  
it inside knowledge, or just Belt's vast experience that gave them  
the key to rescuing the mission? She had no doubt that there would  
be a thorough investigation. She wondered if she could convince  
David to take the promotion so that he wouldn't pilot any of the  
future shuttle missions. She didn't want him going up in space any  
more.

x-x-x

Washington, DC

His friend and colleague managed to meet the Senator by chance as he  
headed to his office. They shook hands and exchanged a few  
pleasantries, and then the Senator asked, "Do you think it was the  
right decision, involving Ms. Generoo?"

His friend squinted into the middle distance. "I've seen her record.  
I knew she would do the right thing for the space program."

"She almost didn't, when her fiance was put at risk."

"Now you know why Agent Mulder was needed in the equation." He  
smiled his enigmatic smile. "He may be, as we'd hoped, the asset  
we've needed."

"Also a risk. He is the antithesis of predictable." 

"I happened to know of his regard for Colonel Belt. There are a few  
things that you can predict with Fox Mulder, and one of them is  
loyalty to his childhood hero. And now Belt is no longer a  
liability. A very neat denouement, don't you think?"

"Colonel Belt is a sad loss," the Senator said. 

"He was lost long ago. It was only a matter of time before he did  
something that caused a much larger problem. The overall program is  
safe. That was our goal. And, we achieved it with minimal loss of  
life. It was worth the gamble."

The Senator grunted and said, "If you say so." 

"There won't be any trouble from the Committee, will there?"  
Senator Matheson headed the Space subcommittee.

"We have reviewed Agent Scully's report. She states that the  
diagnosis was that the Colonel was suffering from a form of dementia.  
No mention of mysterious faces or possession. The final report by  
NASA will no doubt say the same, and confirm that Colonel Belt  
ordered the X-rays of the damaged parts and sent them anonymously to  
Ms. Generoo." He adjusted his scarf against the chill wind. "I am  
concerned about Ms. Generoo and her...loyalty to the program."

"There are no guarantees in life, my friend. However, I don't think  
she will want the credibility problem that comes from insisting she's  
seen something that no one else can corroborate or explain. I suspect  
she will put the, ah, incident behind her. After all, she's got her  
fiance back safe and sound. He's been promoted. As has she." 

"Do you really think that will buy her silence?"

"I think she will talk herself out of anything too out of the  
ordinary. The simplest explanation is usually the best."

x-x-x

Houston, Texas

They asked repeatedly about her actions during the launch and the  
landing. She found it odd, since there were recordings of all of it.  
What they didn't ask about was Colonel Belt. They didn't ask if she  
thought he'd sent the photos. They didn't ask about the "face" she  
thought she saw hovering over his face. They weren't interested in  
the accident she'd had on the way back to Mission Control.

She felt a guilty relief. She just wanted to put it all behind her.

Agent Mulder called a few days afterward. He seemed disappointed but  
not surprised when she told him she didn't remember very much about  
the accident, or about Colonel Belt's collapse. By then she had done  
her own investigation of Agent Mulder. She certainly didn't want to  
end up like him, from golden boy to Bureau joke.

She had a job to do, and an example to set. The space program was  
counting on her. David was counting on her. 

 

x-end-x

**Author's Note:**

> It's been almost seven years since I've written something in this  
> series. Maybe knowing that "Space" was the next one was what stopped  
> me. I think this is the third story I've written for "Space" even  
> though it's not one of my favorite episodes. 
> 
> It was my original intention to write a story for every episode,  
> from the POV of a secondary character. That may have been a touch  
> ambitious, but we'll see what happens. No promises. But it does feel  
> good to have written a fic after so long.
> 
> Feedback always appreciated: msnsc21@yahoo.com


End file.
